Search for taxi driver who may have witnessed assasination attempt on ex-Russian banker

Search for taxi driver who may have witnessed assasination attempt on ex-Russian banker

Detectives say they want to speak to a London taxi driver who left Russian ex-banker German Gorbuntsov outside his apartment just moments before he was shot.

Detectives investigating an assassination attempt on Russian ex-banker German Gorbuntsov in London are looking for a taxi driver they say may have witnessed the attack.

Associated Press says that the taxi driver drove Gorbuntsov to his home on Tuesday night, shortly before he was shot several times outside the apartment block in Byng Street close to London's Canary Wharf financial district.

"Officers are now keen to speak with the driver as they may have been in the area when the shooting took place," the BBC quotes Scotland Yard as saying.

They have also released a description of the gunman, who is said to be a white male, 6ft, and of slim build, but would not confirm reports in the Russian media that he had used a sub-machine gun in the attack.

Reuters reports that Gorbuntsov's lawyer, Vadim Vedenin, said his client had submitted evidence to police investigating an attack on another banker, Alexander Antonov, in Moscow in 2009.

The Telegraph newspaper explains that three Chechen men were convicted of attempted murder in that case and given long jail sentences in 2010. It adds that the attempted assassination on Gorbuntsov will prompt comparisons with the murder of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London in November 2006. Scotland Yard has said it is "too early to speculate" on a link with the Antonov case.

Gorbuntsov, 45, The Independent reports, has a controversial past, with allegations of involvement in an illegal bank takeover and embezzlement in Moldova.